Fancy Nancy Does the Dem Hypocrisy Waltz

It would be funny if it wasn't so infuriating. Nancy Pelosi is wagging her finger at Bush for "doing nothing about home foreclosures" after not so long ago helping Veep-to-be Biden push through the bankruptcy bill that created almost twice as many foreclosures as there would otherwise have been.

House Speaker  Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that the Bush administration must do more to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes before Congress will agree to release any more money tothe Treasury Department's financial system bailout effort, which is running low on cash.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the White House has "totally ignored" Democratic demands to stem the rising tide of home foreclosures, one of the fundamental goals of the $700 billion rescue program. So far, the Treasury has spent $335 billion, leaving it with only $15 billion of the first installment of the money.

The hypocrisy is breath-taking, a level we thought we'd never see again once the Bushies were gone. But never fear. Nancy is here.

The Bankruptcy bill does two things that made this crisis far worse and nearly doubled the number of foreclosures. First, on behalf of Biden's banking supporters it requires that credit cards be paid off before mortgage payments. The problem with that should be obvious. Second, it removed the laws that previously allowed homeowners to prevent their houses from being taken in the event of their having to declare bankruptcy. Finally, there was something it could have done and didn't: it could have set a limit to the interest rates banks charged on their credit cards. Lower interest payments might have meant the hardest-hit homeowners had a little wiggle room when the hammer came down.

But it didn't. It wasn't interested in protecting people from unethical scamming by bankers or usurious interest rates (Thanx, ND!). It was only interested in protecting banks from losing money when people were forced to declare bankruptcy. And this was a Democratic bill.

But never mind all that. That was yesterday and this is today and our Democratic reps, GOP-trained to ignore both reality and the part they played in it, are stealing the Rove-inspired trick of pretending they've always been against what they used to be for.

If we fall for this shit, we deserve to be reamed again.

Comments

[eRobin]

That disaster is going to have to be repealed. It's really a shame that it can't be hung around the necks of everyone who voted for it.

[mick arran]

At this point I'd settle for simple admissions by the guilty pareties that, yes, they were involved, instead of this Bushian "Who? Me? Not me!" Pelosi's pretending she never heard of the bankruptcy bill. As if.